Improving access to human material for diabetes research

Glasgow Caledonian University - Professor Ann GrahamThe Skin Research Tissue Bank (STB) at Glasgow Caledonian University currently supports several different projects in diabetic wound healing, vascular problems with diabetes, diabetic retinopathy and cellular ageing. Our funding will help the STB to develop new types of human cell models that can replace animal experimentation on rodents.

In traditional diabetes research, strains of genetically modified mice and rats are bred specifically for diabetes research because they are thought to mimic diabetes in humans. At a conservative estimate, over 92,000 animals are used in diabetes research per year worldwide. While huge, this figure will also be a gross under-estimation, as it does not account for animals culled during transgenic breeding, which can be substantive, or during project development or unpublished work.

Most of the animals used in UK diabetes research are rodents with either a genetic mutation or those that have been treated with a drug to kill their pancreatic insulin-producing cells. The animals are used for a huge range of studies including the effects of raised glucose and insulin levels on physiology; diabetic wound healing studies; the vascular effects of diabetes; the effects of diabetes on vision; looking at how nerves are damaged by the disease; and the effects of diabetes on pregnancy. All of these studies will have different experimental protocols associated with them.

If we concentrate on diabetic wound healing animal studies, wounds are made in the back, thigh or foot skin of the animals with the diabetes mutation and also control animals that do not have the mutation. These wounds may then have drugs applied to see whether this will speed or slow rates of wound closure. The animals are then killed and their tissues used for the research.

During 2014-2017, we will fund a three-year programme at the Glasgow Caledonian University Skin Research Tissue Bank (STB) to provide human skin tissue and cells that can be used for studies related to diabetes. The STB allows clinical samples to be brought in to their laboratories and was established in 2011 to support diabetes research. The skin tissue used is donated anonymously by patients with and without diabetes.

Using human tissue has many advantages over using tissue from animals – it gives a much better idea of how drugs that are used in the laboratory could be developed into medicines in the future. In addition, the use of human tissue and cells replaces the need for animal experimentation, and reduces the use of animal products in research. The human tissue can be made into 3D models of human skin that can be used to test new drugs in development, such as those that may help in the treatment of diabetic ulcers. Researchers at the Glasgow Caledonian University also have the ability to create human stem cells from skin cells, which can be turned into many different types of cells to use in diabetes research, such as nerve cells and blood vessel cells. The use of these stem cells will also reduce the need for animals to be used in these types of experiments.

The Glasgow Caledonian University STB currently supports several different projects in diabetic wound healing, vascular problems with diabetes, diabetic retinopathy and cellular ageing. Our funding will help the STB to develop new types of human cell models that can replace animal experimentation.

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Taleen Shakouri from the University of Hertfordshire, will be developing a computer model of certain toxicology tests which has the potential to replace many experiments currently conducted on primates and mice.

Edward Nendick at the University of Edinburgh will be using one of the latest cutting edge, gene editing technologies, CRISPR-Cas9, in cell culture to further our understanding of schizophrenia without using mice.

Using advanced cell culture and proteomics (the study of the proteins of a cell), Lauren Richardson from Nottingham Trent University will be researching Parkinson’s disease. This will help to replace the use of primates, rats or mice.

The ARC, at the Blizard Institute QMUL, will provide a unique environment for scientists to work together to develop human-based models of skin, breast and prostate cancer, replacing mouse models. It also aims to inspire the next generation of scientists through education about animal free research.

In 2015, the number of animals used for the first time in procedures for scientific purposes was 4.07 million (4,069,349). The number of procedures that were conducted on animals is slightly higher at 4.14 million (4,142,631). These numbers, over the past few years have remained fairly similar with both the number of animals used and the number of procedures conducted hovering around the 4 million mark consistently.

With your help, we can free animals from laboratories for good.Our work is funded entirely by your generous support. Your donation helps to fund some of the most advanced and successful human-related techniques in many areas of medical research including cancer, Alzheimer's, asthma, heart and liver disease.

The use of animals in experimentation and testing in the UK is regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, known as ASPA. This Act states the legal provisions that have been created for the protection of animals used for experimental or other scientific purposes.